Appearance

Appearance It was just another day. The heat was as thick as the cloud of dust my car kicked up on the long dirt road to my friend’s house, an oasis of order in the central Florida jungle along the Peace River. We sat on the verandah and talked quietly while condensation sparkled down our tall, cold glasses of pink lemonade. The coffee colored water of the Peace slipped slowly past the crisp edge of the smooth, manicured lawn which cut a window in the wall of jungle and revealed a secret world of dark birds, heavy reptiles, and jeweled insects. She stepped through the back door to answer the phone, letting a cool breath of air waft across my face, and missed a momentous event. The spirit of the river appeared. Among the golden leaves floating on the high tension surface of the water, a black head, the size and shape of my hand rose slowly from the mysterious, dark water and glistened indigo in the sun. He ascended the edge of the grass to my left, followed by a long, dark rope as big as my upper arm and made a slow turn to gaze accusingly at this clean scar on the chaos he ruled. Then, dismissing us as only temporary, outlandish ambassadors of strangeness, he measured the length of space I could see with all his thirty feet before returning to that wet empire where he reigns supreme. She came back with fresh drink and another waft of cool air and I could not speak of what I had seen, for something in her eyes said she would not believe. Copyright Vol Lindsey 2014